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8/01/2006

A Family Affair...

One of the weird things about becoming the leader of a ministry that already has a bit of a history is assimilating yourself into the already established group of leaders. I think that it's natural for an organization, whether ministry or not, to have some personnel struggles when new management takes over. I took over the Middle School Ministry at our church about a year and 3 months ago. (Wow! That's so weird to say! It does not seem like it's been that long!) And, to be honest, there's been a few bumps in the road between the leaders who were here before and me. Nothing huge. Mostly miscommunication or lack of communication.

The Lord has really laid our leaders on my heart HARD since June and I have definitely recognized the importance of having a healthy volunteer team.

So, Sunday night, we were able to do something that I've wanted to do for a long time. We had a family dinner. At my last church, the Junior High Staff was incredible at retaining volunteers due in large part to the family atmosphere that they established. It's been a dream of mine since May '05 to establish the same thing here in our ministry. So we got everybody together at one place around one table and had supper.

We went to Buca di Beppo and it was awesome! If you've never eaten there, it's awesome Italian served family style (see why I wanted to go), which means you have to pass the large potions around the table to everyone. Good times were had by all. Middle School veterans met the rookies. Conversations were had between people that maybe wouldn't naturally have happened. I think that it was a great way to close out one year and begin another.